Towns

WMVY

Some 1,700 people turned out at the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs on a rain and sleet-driven Saturday to sample some of the best chili recipes and raise more than $27,000 for the Red Stocking Fund at the 29th annual event sponsored by radio station WMVY.

The sold-out event sponsored by WMVY raised $34,000 for the Red Stocking Fund this year. People sampled chilis and danced to the music of the Mariachi Mexico Lindo Band, the Baja Brothers and later Johnny Hoy.

The 28th Annual Big Chili Contest, a major fundraiser for both the Red Stocking Fund and the Portuguese-American Club, begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the P.A. Club in Oak Bluffs (snow date is Sunday).

The popular local radio station WMVY, which has been an online entity since it lost its FM signal nine months ago, will return to the airwaves next spring. Barbara Dacey, a longtime deejay and the station’s director of worldwide programming, announced the news on the air just after 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

Radio station WMVY officially went on the air 30 years ago. Though block programming and automation had existed on the signal for some time, 1983 was the year that “we basically signed on as WMVY in the format of mixing rock and blues and folk rock,” director of worldwide programming Barbara Dacey said this week.

Radio station WMVY, the popular Vineyard station that was endangered after its owners sold its FM signal, will live on through online streaming after having reached its fundraising goal last week.

The station’s fundraising effort, which drew support from listeners around the world, was completed just in time: WMVY’s 92.7 FM call signal will be transferred to WBUR, a Boston-based National Public Radio station, in about a week.